This is what happens with an unelected PM: Planned Espionage Act could jail journos and whistleblowers as spies

The government has received recommendations for a “future-proofed” new Espionage Act that would put leaking and whistleblowing in the same category as spying for foreign powers.

The plans would threaten leakers and journalists with the same extended jail sentences as agents working for of foreign powers. Sentences would apply even if – like Edward Snowden or Chelsea Manning – the leaker was not British, or in Britain, or was intent on acting in the public interest.

Free press and whistleblowing are necessary checks and balances on democracy. Killing them opens the way to a dictatorial corrupt nepotistic free for all, where the top layer of society distances themselves from the lower layer and crime becomes a necessity on the part of the lowest layers to survive.